Mayhem Miller Unhappy With Showtime Ban (Obviously)

If you’re wondering why Jason “Mayhem” Miller didn’t appear on any Strikeforce cards after his involvement in the infamous Nashville brawl with members of the Cesar Gracie fight team, well, we finally have an explanation. Turns out that Showtime executives were so unhappy with Miller that they banned him from appearing on any Strikeforce broadcasts.

Never mind the fact that Mayhem didn’t start the fight in the first place. He went into the cage to try and promote a fight. Promoting fights was something that the old Strikeforce regime was quite terrible at, to be honest, and while Miller should have gotten clearance before going in the cage, it’s not like he was the only one to blame. Several fighters were suspended and fined as a result of the brawl, but Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez have appeared on Showtime broadcasts since then.

“I asked, and guess what? Nobody would tell me,” Miller said. “This is a political environment. Nobody’s going to tell you. They’re just going to be cowards about it. That’s the way of the world. Nobody’s going to tell the crazy ultimate fighter guy to his face, ‘Hey, screw you.’ They’re not going to do that.”

“Maybe it was because I was the only guy who apologized and accepted the blame,” he said. “I was the only guy who really apologized for it, and not this half-hearted thing where my manager’s making me say I’m sorry. I was truly apologetic. That whole incident, I never expected anything like that to happen.”

Miller was allowed to take a fight in Japan against Kazushi Sakuraba. After that, his contract expired and he signed with the UFC.

“Up until the last minute – up until it was apparent that they had no intention of fulfilling the contract – I was like, hey, I’m ready to fight. Let’s fight,” Miller said. “At the last moment, it looks as if, okay, they can’t fulfill the contract. Now I fight in the UFC. …I have no ill will towards anyone. If that’s how they saw it, then that’s how they saw it. If that’s the case that I was really banned [from Showtime], then hey, it’s not the first place I’ve been 86’d from.”